Best Meat Counter

Kenrick's Meats and Catering

Normally we would deliver a lecture in this space about how biggest doesn't necessarily mean best. But this year, magically, the twosome has merged in Kenrick's Meats & Catering, the south-county standby that has been the stuff of carnivorous dreams for the past 65 years. Walk through the door and you're greeted by the smell of barbecue and the sight of a counter that appears to go on for miles, packed with every sort of meat you could possibly want: ground beef, ground pork, sausages, beef steaks, pork steaks, pork chops, lamb chops, veal chops, whole chickens, half chickens, chicken breasts, pre-seasoned, even pre-cooked if you're just too lazy to fire up the grill. Everything is butchered on-site, and it all tastes as good as it looks. There's a substantial bank of freezers, if you want to keep your meat on ice for a while (Kenrick's website helpfully calculates how much your freezer should be able to hold), and an array of non-meat items, including hamburger and hot dog buns and vegetables that would make good burger toppings or additions to a shish kebab. Kenrick's remains a family business — though these days the family is the Weinmanns, many of whom still work behind the counter and are more than happy to pass along recipes and cooking suggestions should your imagination fail you. Which does tend to happen when you're surrounded by so many possibilities.